The Smiling
by Evil Carlos
Summary: A body has been found on the streets of London, smiling but dead. Nobody knows where it came from, nobody knows how it died and; when Sherlock Holmes and Madame Vastra investigate, they find that the truth is worse than either of them could possibly have imagined...
1. Chapter 1

**Dr. Watson**

I have had many adventures with Sherlock Holmes; most I have written down, some I have published but there are a few that I have never committed to paper. Events that are too dark or improbable to be believed, things that I wish I could dismiss as nightmares but I know are true. What I am about to recount is one such of these adventures. I do not know whether I shall publish it, or what I shall do with it when I am done but, even if nothing ever comes of it, I shall be glad I recorded it – if not for posterity then, at the very least, for my own sanity.

It all began on a November evening in 1892 as I returned to Baker to greet my old friend. I do not know whether I should call him a friend but that is how I thought of Holmes. I think he had some affection for me although, in his mind, my main purpose was to compliment him on his deduction skills and think of ideas that he had already decided not to use even before he'd heard them.

As I walked into the drawing room that day, Holmes looked up from a telegram which he had been studying intently.

He was muttering to himself: "Come as soon as you can – stop – There's something I want you to see..." His eyes glanced at me. "Something to see, Watson. I wonder what that could mean..."

"Who sent it?" I asked.

"Madame Vastra."

"Well then I suppose we ought to see what she's found."

Without saying a word, Sherlock stood up and we headed out into the London fog.

Madame Vastra had been in contact with Holmes for a while. He said that, although he disapproved of her race and sexuality, she was a good detective and they had solved a fair few cases together. It turned out that what Homes meant by race was slightly different from what I had thought and, when I first met here, I believe I passed out at the sight. She was similar to a human but her head was strangely shaped and her skin was scaly and of a green hue. Before she became a detective, she had spent a brief period of time on the freak show circuit purporting to be a 'lizard woman from the dawn of time' although I (like most people who knew her well) that she had some sort of dermatological disease. Rumour has it that her relationship with her maid Jenny was slightly more intimate than it seemed but I will not go into that as it does not affect the storyline in any particular way.

Eventually, we arrived and, almost instantaneously, the door was thrust open by Vastra herself with a grave look on her reptilian face. She beckoned us in and, as we walked, she explained to us what had happened. "Yesterday, I was given this by Scotland Yard. They said that they could not work out what had happened to it so they wondered if I help. Even I could not fathom what had happened or how it had occurred so if figured that, if anyone could work it out, it would be you."

We entered the next room in which a body lay under a blanket.

Holmes turned to Vastra. "A corpse!? Was this all that you brought me here for?"

Vastra removed the blanket, obscuring what lay underneath it from my view. "Take a closer look."

Holmes studied the body and then emitted something that sounded almost like a chuckle. "Well," he said "He certainly died happy".

As I peered over at the body, I saw that Holmes was right. It was definitely a child and definitely dead but thing that made me shudder most was the face that was looking up at me with a hideous, leering grin.


	2. Chapter 2

Holmes suddenly flicked out of his puzzlement. "Where did you find this body?" he asked, staring at Vastra.

"I believe-

"No," Holmes replied "I can work it out myself. The clothes seem dirty but have not been gathering dirt so rapidly in the last few days. He seems malnourished but, from the look of his stomach he has recently eaten heartily. All of this seems paradoxical but leads me to only one conclusion..."

I butted in, causing Holmes to react with some annoyance. "The child was on the streets but... Someone took pity on him and gave him a new life. A children's home or something ..."

Sherlock nodded, in way that gave me the impression that that had been what he had been going to say. "Vastra, do you know of any such places close to our current location?"

"Yes," she replied "And if you hadn't interrupted me with your pointless deduction then it would have saved us a precious few minutes. The body came from the Adcock home for street children, it is only a few miles away from here and we could be there in under an hour if we are quick."

"Well then," answered Holmes "We should go."

As we walked, Vastra conversed with Sherlock in great detail. "You still haven't told me Holmes, what do you think happened to the body?"

"That is the one thing that puzzles me Vastra, in all my time as detective I have been able to come to some sort of conclusion for everything I have been presented with. With this, I have no idea and it leads me to assume that we are in greater danger than ever before..."


	3. Chapter 3

The huge, red brick building loomed over us. It seemed odd to think that, in this place, people's lives were changed for good when, in the surrounding factories, children lived out their miserable existences in starvation and poverty. Sherlock stepped up to the imposing wooden doors and knocked. Slowly they opened to reveal a man of about my age with a thick cockney accent. He seemed scared – almost as if there was something he was trying to hide.

"What is your business here?" he asked.

Before Holmes and I could say anything, Vastra answered his question causing the man to seem more at ease (he had no idea what terrible visage lay beneath her veil).

"We mean you know harm," she began "We only want to inspect the good work you are doing. I am sure that our findings will be positive."

She gave the man a nudge and, together, we entered the building.


	4. Chapter 4

**Madame Vastra**

On entry, there did not seem to be much that was suspicious about the Adcock home for street children. The door led in to a long corridor, lined with doors on either side. We agreed to split up and, as I explored the place, there did seem to be something eerie about it. Something wrong. The children seemed sort of worried, none of them would talk about it, none of them would really talk much at all, now I come to mention it. Occasionally I would see them in groups, being lead through the building by some sort of maid. I decided to follow one of these groups, curious to see where they would go.

We left the main build and traipsed through some grimy cellars packed to the brim with some tonnes of something or other (I couldn't see in the half light). Slowly, the rooms got progressively darker until I could see a faint red, it seemed to engulf everything. There was a flash and suddenly it was dark again. And this time I didn't want to get out of the darkness. I liked the darkness, it gave me a pleasure I couldn't fathom. I felt indescribably happy. The happiest I had felt in years. All engulfing, all powerful. I couldn't ever be sad again – but it was beginning to dawn on me that I had no idea why...


End file.
